Tim Hudson was outstanding in his Giants debut, mesmerizing a potent D-Backs lineup with a panoply of sinkers and changeups. He allowed only three hits in 7-2/3 scoreless innings. He needed help on a few hard hit balls but Angel Pagan made two nice catches and Hunter Pence chipped in one as well. Otherwise Huddy worked quickly, threw strikes (he struck out seven), and kept the hitters guessing. It was an impressive display of that greatest of virtues, Veteran Savvy Clutchness. Hudson also contributed a sacrifice bunt in the 5th, moving up rookie Ehire Adrianza who had walked with one out. Angel Pagan cashed in the chance with a single to right and the Giants had all they needed. Newcomer Michael Morse added his own two-out hit in the 6th, a booming liner that just eluded Tony Campana in center and scoring Hunter Pence for an insurmountable 2-0 lead. Pitching, fielding, and situational hitting: sounds like Giants baseball.
GO GIANTS!
--M.C.
5 comments:
Romo looked good, didn't he?
Great start to the Huddy era!!!
And apparently he really owns the D-backs, under 2 ERA overall, and especially in AZ, that's like how Zito owned the Rockies in Coors.
And Lincecum has a great role model/mentor, who also pitches right in front of him, so he gets the incentive to try to match the master in each and every start. Zero runs, zero walks, 7 K's in 7.2 IP, only 3 hits, the bar is set very high.
And yeah for Adrianza on his first start, got an error, but more importantly, walked then scored the winning run. Also got robbed of a hit too, in his first AB. Still, nice start for the youngster, he's been a prospect forever, but he's still only 24 YO.
Problem with Lincecum trying to match Hudson, is that Hudson actually has control of his pitches. Lincecum's pitches may move more, but Hudson, has more ability to know where his pitches are going. On days that Lincecum has decent control, and there are not many of them, he still can be one of the best pitchers in the game, but he has to learn how to consistently harness his control, while keeping his pitches vibrant. Let's see Lincecum top that Hudson outing today.
Well, good news, bad news, Lincecum had the zero walks and 7 K's but gave up 4 runs in his 6 innings, 8 hits, 2 dingers.
I'll take that. The hits and homers are a bit random generally, whereas the walks and K's are under his control. Baggarly noted that this was only his 16 start with no walks in 221 career starts.
But that's just one start. But you got to start somewhere. I will take this start since the offense woke up and won the game for us. He was headed for a quality start until that pitch to Trumbo, just short.
Plus, I was just amazed that he was pitching anyway, ball off the side of knee then some sort of stomach ailments/flu just the day before that should have weakened him. His start looks especially good given these two things.
You have to love guys coming off the bench and getting big hits.
Didn't get to watch Timmeh but I like the no walks as well. My gosh, 16/221? Wow.
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